Iraqi official slain during day of attacks

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A senior Iraqi official was gunned down in Baghdad yesterday
after a day of attacks waged by insurgents against the country's
security services that left at least 27 people dead.

An interior ministry source said Iraq's deputy director for
passports and identification was shot dead by armed men in Baghdad
yesterday, without giving further details.

More than 1300 police and national guard have been killed by
rebels since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

Meanwhile, Ansar-al-Sunna, a militant group linked to Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaeda terror network, claimed an attack in Balad, north
of Baghdad, on Monday that killed 15 and wounded 23.

"The attack killed 20 infidels and wounded 15," said an Internet
statement by the group which could not be independently
verified.

Ansar al-Sunna said it ambushed the convoy of a high-ranking
Iraqi army officer in Balad detonating a car bomb against it.

Two other attacks in Baquba, north-east of Baghdad, on Monday
killed 10, most of them Iraqi soldiers.

Despite major US-led assaults and the arrest of hundreds of
suspects over the past six months, including a massive onslaught on
rebels in Fallujah last year, the insurgency shows no signs of
dying out.

In the restive northern city of Mosul, two suspected insurgents
were killed and two wounded during a raid by US troops in search of
weapons on Monday, a military statement said, adding that two
"extremely large" caches were seized.

The arms caches included 200,000 rounds of ammunition, over 950
mortar rounds and over 840 kilograms of explosives, it said.

US soldiers repelled an attack in Dujail, east of Baquba, on
Monday killing two insurgents and detaining five, said a
statement.

In Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province, new Iraqi
commandos conducted a raid on a hospital yesterday "to investigate
possible insurgent activity taking place on the premises", said a
US military statement.

A car bomb was detonated near a US-Iraqi security checkpoint on
Monday in eastern Ramadi, said another statement without giving
further details or saying if there were any casualties.

On the hostage front, a Jordanian businessman was released on
Monday his brother told AFP in Amman after his captors agreed to a
$US100,000 ($126,000) ransom, half of what they initially
demanded.

Ibrahim Maharmeh was seized Friday by unknown kidnappers in the
upmarket Mansur neighbourhood of Baghdad.

Since April 2004 nearly 170 foreigners have been kidnapped in
Iraq.

About 30 were executed by their captors and the fate of nearly
an equal number remains unknown.